By Duke Medicine News and Communications

DURHAM, N.C. -- The National Institutes of Health has asked Duke Medicine to help staff one of 40 field hospitals being set up in response to last week's disaster.

This afternoon, 21 doctors, nurses and other clinicians from Duke were flown by a government-chartered jet to Meridian, Miss. to help staff a U.S. government field hospital being established at Key Air Field, a National Guard post. The Duke team will serve under the direction of the NIH. Equipment for the hospital is being brought in by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

A second group of 23 Duke clinicians plans to fly to the Meridian field hospital tomorrow.

"The extent of last week's tragedy has become painfully clear," said Victor J. Dzau, Chancellor for Health Affairs and President and CEO of the Duke University Health System. "Thousands may have died and hundreds of thousands have been left homeless in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Federal and state disaster resources have been overwhelmed. Therefore it is imperative that Duke commit its expertise and resources to the relief effort. Our response must be rapid, sustained and, in every moment, compassionate."

The current plan calls for the Meridian field hospital to have 250 beds, and to be able to treat adult and pediatric patients with a variety of medical problems. The Duke physicians being deployed are specialists in emergency medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, surgery, cardiology, obstetrics and gynecology. The hospital will be set up in an aircraft hangar at the facility.

The Meridian field hospital is the second medical relief effort Duke has joined. At 3:00 p.m. Sunday, a team of five nurses and technicians from Duke University Hospital and Durham Regional Hospital arrived in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, near Gulfport, as part of a larger contingent that brought a 100-bed mobile hospital to the stricken community. The Duke personnel are part of a 100-member medical team drawn from hospitals and EMS agencies across North Carolina that was dispatched to the disaster area Friday night.

Duke Medicine sent an e-mail today telling its doctors, nurses, and other clinicians how they can volunteer for hurricane relief assignments. Duke will draw from this pool of volunteers if additional help is requested by the federal government.

For updates on Duke Medicine's hurricane relief efforts, please go to www.dukemednews.org.